Punctuality

Have you ever arrived on time to a meeting and had to wait to start the meeting until several of your employees showed up late? Or as you start a meeting, have you seen your employees or others casually stroll in late? Either of these behaviors can be very disruptive and even disrespectful. It is very important to be on time because when you show up late, it says that either you don’t respect your time, or come from a background where punctuality is not respected.

Teach Punctuality

So how do you teach punctuality? I had an experience several years ago that taught me a valuable lesson on the importance of punctuality. I was a leader of a group of about six people at the time. Within the group, I constantly struggled to figure out how to get people to be on time.

An Example

I came into the environment where several of the people would show up late to the meetings without notifying me. When I say late, it wasn’t just five minutes, they would show up anywhere from 15 to 45 minutes late. Since they were in the habit of showing up late, they would expect me to wait around to start the meeting until they showed up.

The Problem

This was a major problem since a few others and I would always show up at the scheduled time for the meeting. As this behavior progressed, I felt the need to discuss punctuality on a regular basis. For several meetings in a row, I explained the importance of being on time. I regularly started the meetings at the scheduled time even if not everyone was there. [Read more…] about How To Get Your Employees To Be On Time